EMA: Draft reflection paper on the risk of antimicrobial resistance transfer from companion animals

Antimicrobials are important tools for the therapy of infectious bacterial diseases in companion animals. Loss of efficacy of available antimicrobial substances can seriously compromise animal health and welfare. The need for the development of new antimicrobials for the therapy of multi-resistant infections, particularly those caused by Gram-negative bacteria, has been acknowledged in human medicine. For the future a corresponding need in veterinary medicine is to be expected.